Then God said...

Genesis 1 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. ³ Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

⁶ Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷ God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. ⁸ God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

⁹ Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. ¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. ¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. ¹³ There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

¹⁴ Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; ¹⁵ and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. ¹⁶ God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. ¹⁷ God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

²⁰ Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” ²¹ God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. ²² God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after heir kind”; and it was so. ²⁵ God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

One of the most important things we can learn and apply in our own lives is that God, the creator of the heavens and the earth. The creator of all living things, the omnipotent, omniscient God, spoke and it was. If anyone would be capable of thinking something into existence, certainly it would be the all powerful God. Yet in the act of creation, the act of changing the formless and void earth, the chaos to order, God spoke and it was. The text says: “the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”  It was the Holy Spirit of God which responded to the word of God and caused change. The Holy Spirit responding to the will and the Word was the active force of creation.

In verse 26, God says: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” We are  made, created, in the image and likeness of the God of creation. When we want to see things in our life changed, when we want to see order rather than chaos, we too should speak. Proverbs 18:21 says:    The tongue has the power of life and death.    This is often viewed in the negative, as a warning to watch what we say, not speaking negatively into our own lives and the lives of others and that certainly is important. Being created in the image and likeness of God, there is power in what we say.

If the all powerful, all knowing God of creation spoke in order to make changes happen, why do we so often offer silent prayers in the hope of changing things?  God is all knowing and He does know our thoughts, but let’s look at what we are told about prayer. Mark 11:24 says:    Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.      We ask with our mouths and we believe with our minds. Mark 18:18-19 says:   "Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. 19"Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.…    We can only agree with what is spoken. We bind and loose through our spoken words in agreement with each other and God’s will. Let’s look at the interchange Jesus had with His disciples in Matthew 16:15-19      

¹⁵ He *said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are ^[j]the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

Jesus says upon the rock of the revelation, the truth that He is the Christ, He will build His church and give us the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Here is one of the keys. Jesus was there at creation. John 1:1-3, says:  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.        God spoke, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit of God changed chaos to order.  Jesus says:       Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. (John 14:13-14)     What we ask the Father in the name of the Son will be done through the power of the Spirit. We are created in the image and likeness of God.

Our prayers are to be either a conversation with God or a declaration of agreement with His will to invoke change. Either way they are spoken not thought.    The tongue has the power of life and death.    Jesus taught us to pray saying:  “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”      Jesus says a pretty amazing thing in John 14:12-14.

¹² Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. ¹³ Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

The works He did and greater works, the ability to change chaos to order, the ability to loose and bind things on earth and in heaven, the ability to declare the realities of the kingdom of heaven here on earth, that’s the power of life that is in the tongue. That’s the power of the spoken Word of God through the Spirit of God. Just as in the beginning, God the Father, the Word, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit of God.  

In the beginning:  God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”         God created us to rule and have dominion over the rest of creation. We do that, like Him, by speaking life into what is formless and void. By declaring and speaking His Word.

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, the Word and precious Holy Spirit; I am created in Your image and likeness. May I be faithful to speak and declare life and order where there is death and chaos. In and through my life may Your kingdom come and Your will be done. May the realities of heaven be manifested here on earth, in Jesus name.      Amen.